yes you read that right. Ive already partially done it.

ive got a 2004 Jeep grand Cherokee 4wd with 240k on it. Im trying to do this as cheep as possible.

Heres the issue,
at 170k the pinion gear bearing started whining, not wanting to invest more money into it I took the ring gear off. I also replaced the hubs shortly after that cause one of them went bad at 190k I now have a slight grrr......grrrr......grrrr.....grrr noise coming from the dif. Im assuming its the carrier bearings.

Could I put knuckles, spindles, hubs. from a 2WD vehicle on it.? do they match up with a 4 WD axel assembly.?

Or even more cavemanish, cut the axels short and make my own makeshift spindles . (cheapest option if itll work.)

This jeep has been giving me headaches, needs a new skid plate and muffler and id rather not put another dime into it.

Dont quote me on this...

I think you can basically gut the front axle
Remove the front driveshaft
and cut the front axle shafts to use as stub shafts to keep the bearings in place

You actually shouldnt need to cut the axle shafts, just press out the u joint and save the splined part to put back in the hub to keep the bearings tight as if the axle shaft was in place

Again dont quote me

Yes you can do that, I just got a 98 ZJ and that is exactly what some knucklehead did, and they didn't even bother to put the bearing caps back in so that whole front axle is useless now. I am thinking about buying a donor 5 speed XJ and swapping the transmission, transfer case and front axle in. I have always wanted a 5 speed v8 ZJ.